18 Oct Industry Leaders Unite at Annual USAHA Conference

SAN DIEGO – This week the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) met for its annual conference, held this year in San Diego. The USAHA is a non-profit organization that brings together government officials, industry representatives, and animal health researchers.

Representatives of the leading deer, elk, and reindeer industry organizations met together during the conference. Represented for the first time by their own committee, these industry leaders were able to make increasing strides for the benefit of the cervid industry as a whole. “We owe a tremendous amount of thanks to the American Cervid Alliance (ACA) for proposing the creation of this committee in 2013,” said Patrick Tarlton, executive director of the Texas Deer Association. “Our industry is incredibly active at the conference and we anticipate this new committee to be a successful outlet for promoting the immediate need for positive regulatory change at the state and federal level.”The chairman of this new committee is Brett Marsh, Indiana state veterinarian. Charly Seale, executive director of the Exotic Wildlife Assoication will serve alongside Marsh as the committee’s vice chair. “I believe that we had an outstanding agenda for our Farmed Cervidae Committee,” Seale said. “We tried to develop an agenda with very diverse topics that are extremely important to the cervidae industry.” Among the measures passed out of subcommittee are resolutions to encourage the change of costly testing measures and the reduction in burdensome regulatory measures affecting the industry. “TDA was proud to play a role in this positive move for the future of the farmed cervid industry. The impact we’ve had on this conference is tremendous and the coalition of deer and exotic groups has never been stronger,” said Tarlton.